I Am Angry, and It’s Very Appropriate

It’s been difficult for me to write these last few days partly because I am so deeply offended and outraged.

Now they are pretending their drive to destroy the US Senate and the Judiciary is a campaign in defense of faith and of people of faith. It is not. It is entirely about increasing the power of the powerful and the wealth of the wealthy, as is plain when you look at what they DO with any power they get.

The arrogance and infidelity, the sanctimonious perfidy of the Republican party and its wholly-owned appendages in the so-called “community of faith” is astounding. These people are truly among the all-time greats in brazen lying, wool-pulling, and hypocrisy. They have worked hard at it, and they have become world-class.

But do they really think they will outlive That Other Power, the power and interrogation of the Almighty? Silly men. Silly women. Just a few decades AT THE MOST. As T S Eliot wrote, “Be prepared for the coming of the Stranger.” “Be prepared for the coming of the one who knows how to ask questions.” Many of these destroyers of our Constitution are already within a decade or two of the Reaper. But even the “young” ones will not outlive The Judge. Does not that matter? Does not God say, “Vengeance is Mine, I WILL repay”? They clearly do not believe they personally face any threat of judgment. That means they are not Christian in any conservative or Biblical sense of the term.

I just got a canned survey call from Focus on the Family. I was outraged at the first question (about Senate Democrats) and yelled at the machine. “NO! That line of questioning is outrageous. Are you LIVE? Answer me!” The voice was not live. It asked “Do you think of yourself as a Republican?” “NO! Of COURSE not!” I hope intensity of response makes my answers count three or four times.

“I think what has happened is Focus on the Family has been hijacking Christianity and become an appendage of the Republican Party,” Salazar said in an interview. “I think it’s using Christianity and religion in a very unprincipled way.”

Mark Pryor lashed out Wednesday at the Christian evangelicals who have joined the attack on Democratic filibusters of President Bush’s judicial nominees.

Their tactics threaten “to make the followers of Jesus Christ just another special-interest group,” Pryor said in a conference call with Arkansas reporters. “It is presumptuous of them to think that they represent all Christians in America, even to say they represent all evangelical Christians,” added Pryor, 42, a first-term Democrat who has considered himself an evangelical Christian for 25 years.

Isn’t it sad that there are so many “Christians” in these watered-down ministries who think they can tell that Pryor is not a “true” Christian because he is a Democrat?

I am a Christian. I have problems with “the Democrats”. That’s a very broad term; it’s like saying I have problems with the human race. I am identified with the human race as well as with the Democrats. But I cannot imagine any way under Heaven I would allow myself to affiliate with the Republican party as it now stands.

We know which party keeps the paid liars and addicts on the radio and tv. We know which party will lie about and destroy any and every person who interferes with their insane lust for total power. We know which party is EAGERLY shoveling the money from the schools and the wage-workers into the pockets of the already ridiculously wealthy.

The Arkansas senator said he understands “how many people are frustrated with the judiciary” but Christians “should represent the best in politics, not the worst in politics.“

Unfortunately, Christian churches and ministries are, as Pryor indicates, coming to represent the worst in politics – in the eyes of America AND of the whole world, and they seem to be proud of it. But it is an extremely painful fact for many of us, because it is such a profound corruption of what Christ stood for. And you know, when push comes to shove, it’s not usually the truly powerful, the “buyers”, who get shoved – it’s the ones who have been bought.

If power corrupts, as it always tends strongly to do, so also the lust for power corrupts. It moves you to the lowest levels of immorality, no matter what your professed religious faith. If there is a Devil, or if there’s not, this is classic Devil-strategy – just keep lying. Keep it loud and keep it long and keep it self-righteous. Lie fervently and refer often to faith or God as you do so.

It takes guts of cast iron, a heart of stone, flaming ravenous lust for power, strong mental discipline, and a completely corrupted morality (spirit). But it often works – for short and usually very destructive periods – it often works.

I am genuinely a Biblical Christian, and I am NOT a party to this. I see and protest strongly this sell-out of the Christian faith, this dragging of the names of God and of Christ through the slime of their lies and their lusts.

7 Comments

I am an Activist, so I am not trying to make light of the sincere feelings expressed here. I would like to say that all this has been fortold, and as much as the destruction and waste and violence and corruption upset me, I must remember that all things are in God’s hands. That doesn’t mean I am going to stop fighting for Bush and and his minions to be impeached, but I am going to trust that the judgement of God will prevail. Maybe he will use me for their impeachment, or maybe all of their rewards await their after lives. I know that eveyone knows things are in God’s hands, but it is nice to be reminded of it myself, when I am calling the house Reps and imploring them to do something to protect our constitution.

It is a good thing for the Resident and Vice Resident, that God, in his infinite mercy, is judge and not me. (God Forgive me)
And Thank the Lord, that he has suffered these men a short time.

Thank you Larry, and those others who comment. I think the Neocons have seen the New Deal, the EPA, and accountability regulations, and raised us the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) (see http://www.newamericancentury.org and click on “Statement of Principles”). The trouble with believing that “they know that eventually they will lose the support of the Evangelicals,” is that the public does NOT know about the PNAC. Since learning of it last summer, everyone I’ve mentioned it to has never heard of it – and this includes many passionate critics of the Bush regime, also many with a lot of college. The neocons have kept out of the press (don’t they own it now, including NPR?), although the PNAC has been on the internet for years.

Larry, I think we all, like you, are in the process of grieving the loss of our country. There’s a lot to grieve, because spaceship USA has been hijacked, if you will. Democracy is not in the toilet, but rather deep in the cesspool. It would be good if those of us who catch on could find a way to grieve together. Maybe that is what is so beautifully happening on this website.

And to further “cross-post,” this Scripture is so apropo – indeed I believe these ancient prophets saw our current neocon government and wrote of it specifically here:

18 Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes, 19 to those who say, “Let God hurry, let him hasten his work so we may see it. Let it approach, let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come, so we may know it.”

20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.

22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks, 23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent. 24 Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the LORD Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.